In Your Arms the Deleted Scenes
by OrtonsMistress
Summary: The missing stuff from Jenny and Gibbs first five months together before the attack at the Navy Yard forces them to admit to their relationship. It may help to read In Your arms first, before diving into this one, otherwise some of this may not make sense. *Jibbs Fluff*
1. Christmas Day

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone you recognize. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario.

A/N: So here's a collection of one-shots to fill in the missing 5-month gap between the explosion at the Navy Yard and when Jibbs first got back together in In Your Arms. It will be easier if you have read In Your Arms, to understand some references made in certain chapters with the flashbacks. Feel free to check it out as well. For those that want to know, this takes place after the flashback in chapter 6.

****NCIS****

Christmas Day 2011

Jenny woke up early on Christmas morning, feeling someone holding her around the waist tightly. Panicking for a moment, she let out a breath once she remembered the events of the previous night. 'Jethro storming over here like a baboon, admitting in his own way that he was still in love with you, your quiet whimpers begging him to take you, the several times you came undone beneath him,' she thought to herself as a lazy smirk danced across her face. They definitely didn't have any trouble consummating their relationship over the years. Even after twelve years apart, their bodies were still in sync with each other. The familiarity of Jethro's hands on her body still sent pleasurable shivers through her. Trying carefully to wiggle out of his hold, she managed to slip out of bed and grab her green silk robe. Putting it on, she headed downstairs and started a pot of coffee. Looking out the bay window in her kitchen, she watched as the snow fell pretty hard on top of the already foot of snow they'd gotten over the last few days. She was so lost in her thoughts while staring outside that she didn't hear Jethro sneak up behind her.

"Morning," his gruff voice said, as he wrapped his arms around her waist-hugging her back against his chest.

"Mmm, morning," she replied, turning around in his arms and kissing him softly. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

Nodding his head, he led her back out into the living room while they waited on the coffee to brew. "If I hadn't woken up in your bed, I would have wondered if last night had been just a dream," he mumbled, nuzzling her neck lightly.

Threading her fingers with his, Jenny kept her head against his shoulder. She was thinking about how this would affect both of their careers. She knew how stubborn and irritating he could be at work. They had spent many a night in her office arguing over something he had done, and how she was stuck cleaning up the mess with Sec-Nav or another agency director. She knew he would never make her choose his side, unless he was sure he was right. She was worried how other agents would react if they found out that she and Gibbs were together. 'Wait a minute; you're not even sure if you are back with him. It could have just been a one-night thing, coupled with the fact that neither of you wanted to be alone on the holidays,' she thought to herself-her mind racing a mile a minute. 'Stop trying to talk yourself out of this, Jenny. You know how he feels about you. You have wished numerous times that you could go back to being Jethro and Jen, Jen and Jethro. You know he wouldn't have come here last night and said what he did, just for it to be a one-night thing.'

"Jen, you okay?" he asked, noticing how quiet she was. He was positive he could see her brain trying to process everything that had happened.

Looking up into his eyes, she worked up the courage to ask. "What happened last night—this isn't going to be just a one-week fling through the holidays for you, is it?"

Reaching up and tucking her hair behind her ear, he leaned in and kissed her softly. "I want us to last this time, Jen. You know that no matter what, I am going to be by your side. I want you forever, not just to get through the holidays."

"Good, because I feel the same way," she replied, forcing back the tears at his sincere words. Snuggling up in his arms more, Jenny felt, for the first time in her adult life, a feeling of love and contentment.

"What do you say we just spend the day like this?" he asked, knowing that his team had their own plans-so he wasn't really expected to be anywhere. He was quite content to hold Jenny in his arms, never letting her go.

Tilting her head up toward him, she placed a soft kiss on his neck before whispering, "Sounds like heaven on Earth to me. Spending a cold, snowy Christmas day wrapped up in your arms. I think there's no place else I'd rather be."


	2. Keeping Secrets

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario.

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and favorites of this story so far. Keep in mind, this story is to show Jibbs in the months prior to the Navy Yard bombing-before Gibbs team was forced to find out about the relationship. So some things mentioned are from flashbacks that Jenny and/or Gibbs has, others are from my creative mind and just giving you glimpses.

****NCIS****

Jenny had been sitting in MTAC for most of the day. She and Gibbs had been doing well keeping their newfound relationship a secret. Of course it had only been a few weeks since they'd spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day together. There had been a small part of her that wondered just how long they'd be able to pull the wool over the rest of the agency's eyes, but she didn't care if they knew. It was her life; she was entitled to be happy for once. In fact, she was finally getting a long weekend off-so she was going to be spending it at Gibbs' house with him. She deliberately had their free weekends coincide, so they could for once be semi-normal-Jenny and Jethro, not Director Shepard and Agent Gibbs. Standing up from her chair, she grabbed the files she had been looking at and her now empty coffee cup and walked up the ramp to leave. Almost as soon as she opened the door, she ran smack dab into Gibbs' chest.

"Jethro, you scared the hell out of me," she said, smacking him in the shoulder.

Smirking down at her, Gibbs held up a fresh cup of coffee-as a peace offering. "You forgive me now?" he asked teasingly, seeing the look on her face as she eyed the coffee cup.

Taking it out of his hand, she threw her empty one away and headed toward her office. Using the 'pissed off Director tone' that she normally used when talking to him at work, she ordered, "Agent Gibbs, I need to see you in my office, now!" Walking into her office, she sent Cynthia out to get them some lunch and waited for Gibbs to walk in. Setting her folders on the desk, she turned toward the door and watched with a smirk as he finally stormed in. "It's about time you got in here," she said, setting her cup down and walking over to him.

"I don't think you would know what to do if you couldn't be pissy with me every day at work," he chuckled, wrapping his arms around her waist loosely.

"Are you going to get out of here early tonight?" she asked, leaning into his embrace. She felt the tension from spending a day in MTAC leave her body.

Picking her up in his arms, Gibbs carried her over to the couch in the room and sat down with her curled up on his lap. "I think we should be done by 20:30 tonight," he said, leaning in and kissing her softly.

"Want to come over after then?" she asked, keeping her eyes closed after the kiss as he had started massaging her neck and the back of her scalp. "It's kind of nice waking up in the morning in your arms."

"Yeah sure, if you want me to," he replied, letting her snuggle up against him.

"Hmm, good," she sighed, as she fought to keep her eyes open. "I don't know what it is about you, Jethro, but when you hold me like this I just want to sleep."

Feeling him chuckle lightly under her arm, since her whole right side was pressed up against him, she continued to fall asleep-without hearing his response.

****NCIS****

By the time Jenny left the yard at around 19:00, she was more than exhausted. She'd had a quick nap in her office, then had to go for a budget meeting on the Hill-which wasn't something she looked forward to. She had called Noemi to let her know to make something for dinner-enough for two people. So all she really had to do when she got home was to put the casserole dish into the oven to warm up their meal. She could wait on that till he was almost there. Getting inside her brownstone, she locked her door and dropped her coat and briefcase onto the table in the foyer. Walking upstairs, she went into her bathroom and started filling up the tub. Using her favorite lavender and jasmine bubble bath, she lit a few aromatherapy candles and proceeded to pull her hair up into a twist. She stripped out of her clothes, climbed into the tub once she deemed it ready and let the hot water soak into her tense and sore muscles. She knew that Gibbs had felt the tension in her when he was in her office earlier. She was hoping to get herself relaxed enough by the time he got there so he wouldn't be able to say much to her. She knew the stress was getting to her, having to be in all the meetings she had been that week. Dealing with chauvinistic politicians was enough to drive a crazy woman crazy, and that was only the start of her week. She hadn't been lying to Gibbs when she said it was nice waking up in his arms. He had this way of calming her down, even if he wasn't really trying. Hell, if she could have waited, she would have gone home with him, but there was a part of her that could not wait to get out of the office. They would be spending the weekend at his place, so it was enough to give her the normal domesticated stuff she was looking for. He had told her once that all his ex-wives hated how he would spend so much time down in his basement working on his damn boats. He loved how she would just go down there and help him-no questions asked about it.

Laying her head back against the tub, she thought back to the first time she had helped him with his boat. She had just been a probie on his team for a few months, having killed her first person that day. She had gone to his house after trying to sleep. They talked about what happened, how she had no other choice-it was either kill or be killed. Once she'd had a few glasses of Scotch, she grabbed an extra sander he had laying around and started sanding down part of the boat. She had no idea what she was doing, but she was still surprised when she felt him come up behind her, placing his hands overtop hers and his warm breath tickling her neck as he told her to 'go with the grain.'

Opening her eyes, she wondered how long she had been out of it, thinking back on their past. She quickly grabbed a rag and started washing herself. Once she had finished, she drained the tub and climbed out. Wrapping one of her fluffy towels around her body, she walked into her room to get changed. Putting on a pair of black yoga pants, she grabbed Gibbs' red USMC hoodie he left there and pulled it on over the matching black tank top to her pants. She slid her slippers on, shuffled her way out of the room and walked downstairs. Looking at the clock in the foyer, she saw that he would be leaving the office in about fifteen minutes, so she went into the kitchen and put the chicken and wild rice casserole into the oven to heat it up.

Walking into the living room, she arranged the logs in the fireplace and had managed to get it lit. She then curled up on the couch, turned on the TV and was re-watching Steel Magnolias for the millionth time. It made her cry like it was the very first time she had ever seen it. Hearing Gibbs' truck pull into her driveway, she quickly tried to wipe off her face, wanting to hide any evidence of her tears. She got up and went to the kitchen to get the casserole out of the oven, setting it on top of the stove. She heard him let himself in.

"Jen," he called out, shaking the snow off the shoulders of his coat before hanging it up beside hers.

"In the kitchen," he heard her reply, as he followed the smell of Noemi's casserole. "How was the rest of your night?" she asked, walking up and kissing him softly.

"Fine, we got Amanda Simpson to confess to her boyfriend's murder," he replied, getting some plates down for her. "The reports are on your desk."

"Lucky me," she replied with a laugh, as she put what she wanted on her plate, letting him scoop out his. "I was wondering if you were going to have to unleash Ziva on her."

Chuckling lightly, he went over to the fridge and grabbed them both a beer. He followed her into the living room where they sat on the couch. Jenny curled up beside him as they ate dinner.

"Jen, why are you watching Steel Magnolias?" he asked, since the movie was still playing. "You know you cry every time you watch it."

"I haven't cried yet," she mumbled, her eye twitching-making her curse her luck when she heard him laughing at her.

"Right, Jen. Why don't you just stop while you're ahead," he chuckled, taking a drink of his beer.

She rolled her eyes at him indignantly. "Fine, I was hoping that I wouldn't still cry at this movie," she said, turning the TV off. "Besides, it's a sad movie. I can't help that I cry watching it."

Nodding his head, Gibbs wisely kept his mouth shut, knowing it wouldn't benefit in the least to try and argue with her about it.


	3. Devil's Triangle

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario and company.

A/N: This is set during the Devil's Triangle episode from Season 9. For cannon purposes I moved the episode a little later than when it originally aired. Hope you all enjoy it.

****NCIS****

Gibbs had been working down in his basement most of the night. The case involving Diane had been tiresome at best. Victor had been kidnapped, and she had felt compelled to call him and Fornell to help find him. By the time it was all said and done, a Homeland Security co-worker of Victor's had planned and plotted his kidnapping in an attempt to kill off the top brass and policy makers at the charity football game-involving all five branches of the United States military.

To top it off, Diane had stopped by to return the pocket watch of his grandfather's that he thought for sure he would never see again. Listening to everything she had said, he was a little surprised to find out that she considered him to be her 'Shannon.' He had never wanted to hurt her, and in some weird way he did still care about her. Of course it wasn't in a romantic way; there were only two women in his life who he loved like that, but he didn't want to see Diane being alone and miserable like he had spent twenty years of his life.

This train of thought led him to start thinking about Jenny. They had started things up again. Of course nobody on the team knew about it, or anyone else at NCIS for that matter. He wondered briefly that if he and Jenny had actually stayed together past Paris, would they have made it. She didn't know about Shannon and Kelly, and he hadn't known about her father or La Grenouille. Could they have made it through everything had those secrets not been buried so deep inside them both.

He had been so lost in his thoughts, that he hadn't heard Jenny come into the house or walk down the stairs. "You okay, Jethro?" she asked, her silky alto voice floating over to him as she walked over from the stairs. "I've been calling your name for five minutes now."

"Yeah Jen, I'm okay," he mumbled, pulling her into his arms and kissing her gently.

Keeping her arms around his waist, she looked up at him. "I finally got everything squared away so the FBI can take over the case, and we can enjoy the weekend together."

Taking her hand in his, he led her over to an old chair he kept down there and sat, tugging her down onto his lap. "So what do you have planned for us to do on this weekend off?" he asked, leaning in and kissing her lightly.

Sighing softly into the kiss, she reached up and tangled her fingers through his hair gently as they both were lost in the tenderness the kiss brought. Pulling away for air almost reluctantly, she stared into the cobalt eyes she found herself falling more and more in love with. "Well definitely a lot of that," she joked, as she swore she could spend the entire day just kissing that man. "I don't care what we do really. We could spend the whole weekend working on the boat for all I care. I just don't want to think about work or the upcoming week at all."

Sighing softly into the kiss, she reached up and tangled her fingers through his hair gently as they both were lost in the tenderness the kiss brought. Pulling away for air almost reluctantly, she stared into the cobalt eyes of the man she found herself falling more and more in love with. "Well, definitely a lot of that," she joked, as she swore she could spend the entire day just kissing him. "I don't care what we do really. We could spend the whole weekend working on the boat for all I care. I just don't want to think about work or the upcoming week at all."

"Sounds good to me," he said, hugging her to him.

"So how come Diane was here?" she questioned teasingly. When she had first arrived, she'd seen a car in the driveway parked behind his truck. Not wanting to just walk in and it be someone from work, she waited out in the car until the person left. Needless to say, she had been a little shocked to see that the person was Diane.

Chuckling lightly at her question, Gibbs looked almost amused by Jenny's frank way of putting it. "Are you jealous, Jen?" he couldn't help but ask, and the look on her face made it even more entertaining for him.

"Of Diane?" She laughed, shaking her head. "There is no way I am jealous of her. I mean, you two together simply don't mix. I just wondered if she threatened to hit you with a golf club again."

"She brought back my grandfather's watch," he said, pointing to it on the workbench beside her. "That was all."

"I thought you said she told you she broke it?" She leaned forward, grabbing the watch to look at it. "It's a nice watch, Jethro."

"Thanks," he replied.

"Want to come upstairs with me while I fix dinner?" she asked, smiling at him softly.

Returning her smile with a nod, he leaned in and pecked her lips as they continued to allow themselves to enjoy the happiness and love they had found with each other once again.


	4. Devil's Triangle Jenny's POV

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario and company.

A/N: Here is Devil's Triangle from Jenny's POV. Hope you enjoy!

****NCIS****

Jenny had been sitting at her desk, looking over some case reports, when Gibbs and Fornell walked into her office. Looking up at them over the rim of her glasses, she let out a little chuckle. She knew by the looks on both men's faces that neither one was too happy about this joint case they'd been asked to look into. It wasn't because they had to work together; they'd done so plenty of times and seemed to enjoy it. No, this was because they had to be in direct contact with their mutual ex-wife Diane. She had already discussed things with the director of the FBI and was waiting for the agent from Homeland to arrive for a meeting. That is what led her to be looking over case reports when the duo of bastards came into her office.

"I see you guys are playing nice," she said, unable to stop herself from enjoying this situation just a little too much. "Diane hasn't killed either of you yet."

"Very funny, Director," Fornell grumbled, as he sat down at her conference table. "She's still in love with Jethro here. She'd kill me, but we have a child together so that wouldn't look too good on her."

"I just find it ironic that you both got divorced from her, yet she comes to you two to find her new husband," she said, getting up from the desk. "I understand that you have a child with her Agent Fornell, but what's Jethro's excuse? He could have just walked away from her."

"Eh, I enjoy watching her torture Tobias," Gibbs replied with a shrug.

Shaking her head lightly, she perched against the edge of her desk and smirked at the both of them. "Have you gotten any leads on where Mr. Sterling could be at?" she asked as the door to her office flew open.

"Twenty million dollars!" Diane shrieked as she stormed over to both agents. "When were you going to tell me that Victor had all this money?"

Instead of answering right away, both men looked at each other before turning their attention to Jenny. "Could you deal with her?" Fornell asked, hoping that she could somehow get Diane to calm down.

"Yeah right," she muttered before walking over to the liquor shelf and pouring herself a tumbler of bourbon.

****NCIS****

By the time the case had been solved and everyone was safe and accounted for, Jenny was mentally fried. Of course Diane hanging around NCIS and bugging the hell out of Gibbs had been enough to send Jenny into the solitary recesses of MTAC. She and Diane had never gotten along and never been friends. Diane had always thought that Gibbs cheated on her with Jenny. Their time together hadn't even started until Paris. Sure they'd had some teasing and flirting, a few not-so-innocent touches on Gibbs-especially if Jenny thought nobody was looking. Okay, so it hadn't been completely honest on her end, but she knew that Gibbs would never intentionally set out to hurt Diane, no matter how miserable he was during the entire sixteen months they were married.

She couldn't wait to get out of the office that night. She had plans to stay with Gibbs at his house for the weekend, as they both had been looking forward to some time alone together. She had never enjoyed an inter-agency case as much as she had this one. In some weird twisted way, she had enjoyed watching Diane making both Gibbs and Fornell squirm. Going out to Cynthia's office, she laid the signed case files she had been working on upon her desk for processing when she got in on Monday. Walking back into her office, she grabbed her coat and purse before heading out to the catwalk to head downstairs to leave. Once she was in the parking garage, she got her keys from Melvin and told him to head on home since she wouldn't need him that weekend. Thankfully, he never questioned who her new boyfriend was but knew that he was more than capable of protecting her, as she had assured him many times of that fact.

Turning her car on, she waited to make sure that she saw her security detail leave before she headed out of the lot into the opposite direction. Turning on the radio, she happened to catch one of her favorite songs that reminded her of Gibbs. The gravely voice of Keith Whitley crooned through the speakers. The sound of 'When You Say Nothing At All' made her get lost in her thoughts of their days in Paris and with their newfound relationship again.

There had never been a man in her life that could understand her as well as Gibbs. She was pretty positive her own father hadn't even known her as well. She loved being able to look into his eyes now and know that he loved her unconditionally.

Before the explosion that had rendered him into that coma again and wiped out part of his memory-leaving him back in '91 and finding out all over again that Shannon and Kelly had been murdered-a part of her had wondered if Gibbs had ever loved her. She'd never heard those words come out of his mouth. She never understood why he couldn't say those important words to her. By the time she had found out about them, their new working relationship was so combustible-that when he came back from his 'margarita safari,' she had been knee-deep in her hunt for Grenouille, then he ended up with Colonel Blondie and they couldn't stand to be in the same room as each other most of the time.

Now that they'd both decided to stop being stubborn jackasses and admit their feelings, she was happier than she had been in the six and a half years she'd been back in D.C. She knew deep down that a part of him would always love Shannon; nobody can ever completely forget about their first love, especially if they were ripped away from them in the worst of ways. However, she was able to see that he loved her. She saw it every time she looked into his eyes. Yes, they hadn't said those words to each other yet; she would wait for him to make the first move on that one. She was just very content with where her life was right then.

Pulling onto his street, she was a little confused at the car that was sitting in the driveway behind his truck. Before she could call him and see if it was okay that she come in, she saw Diane walk out of the house and get into the car, making her wonder and chuckle if she had been there to finish beating him with the golf club.


	5. Valentines Day

Disclaimer: Anyone you recognize I do not own. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait on an update. I was sick for most of January and didn't really start feeling better till around Valentine's Day. Then I switched Internet providers and the Internet didn't work on my computer, so it's been a struggle to get this to my beta and posted. Hopefully things start going better soon. Thank you all for being patient with me.

****NCIS****

Valentine's Day. There was no other holiday that Leroy Jethro Gibbs hated more than that. Even when Shannon had been alive, he had despised it. The thought of a holiday telling you that you need to tell the one you love just how much you love them seemed ludicrous. He felt like he showed Jenny more often than not now just how much he loves her and what she means to him. Luckily enough for him, Jenny despised the holiday just as much. She had never spent the holiday with anyone before, not that she didn't have the opportunity but she had been so focused on her career that ever since she left FLET-C, she was never with a man long enough to spend Valentine's Day with him. So on their first non V-Day Valentine's Day, Gibbs was going to cook them some steaks in the fireplace, and he had allowed Jenny to talk him into watching a 'chick flick' with her. Although it didn't take too much convincing once she started doing that little thing with her tongue that drove him crazy.

Getting the steaks ready to cook, he went into the living room and knelt down at the fireplace. Poking around at a few logs, he got the flames going a bit more when Jenny walked into the house carrying her DVD player, the movie she was making him watch as well as a bottle of bourbon.

"It's really starting to get bad out there," she said, setting her things down and shaking the snow off her coat before hanging it up on his coat rack.

"Well, you are staying the night here," he replied, looking up and seeing the rapidly falling snow outside his window. "Maybe we'll get lucky and our boss will call and give us a snow day tomorrow," he added, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

"Cute Jethro," she said, rolling her eyes at him lightly. "Do I need to set up the DVD player for you?"

Looking at her as if she were insane, he walked over and grabbed the device from her and went to hook it up to his TV.

"Well, one never knows with you," she chuckled, kicking her heels off. "You being the technologically inept person that you are, it seemed like a very valid question to ask."

"Oh, like you're the queen of knowing everything about technology," he retorted dryly as he glanced at her from the back of the TV. "Wasn't it you who called McGee the other day when your computer or something froze up?"

Pouring them both a glass of bourbon, Jenny shook her head at how he always assumed that everything just froze up. "Jethro, the computer crashed. There's a big difference in a computer freezing and just being able to reboot it, and the whole damn thing going down."

"What movie are you making me watch?" he asked as he went to put the steaks on the fire.

Walking to the TV, Jenny quickly put the DVD in the player and stuck the case back in her purse. "You'll see," she replied with a hint of a smirk.

"Why am I starting to regret letting you pick out the movie?" he questioned, looking over at her.

Shrugging her shoulders, she went over to sit down on the couch. "No idea why you feel that way. I got this on high praise from someone, so I want to watch it."

"It wasn't DiNozzo, was it?" he asked, sitting down beside her for a moment.

Laughing softly, she looked up at him through her lashes, "No, it wasn't DiNozzo."

Nodding lightly, he got back up to check on the steaks. "They should be ready in a few minutes if you want to go and put the potatoes in the oven to warm them up."

"All right," she replied, going out to the kitchen.

****NCIS****

"Okay, so what are we watching?" Gibbs asked a little while later, after they were done eating dinner.

"This," she replied, turning on the TV and DVD player and waiting for the opening credits to the Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1. "Noemi's daughter highly recommended it to me, so I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. I'd seen the first one with her, and part of the second. Now the human, Bella and the vampire guy, Edward are supposed to finally be getting married, and her wolf friend, Jacob isn't happy about it."

"You aren't serious?" he asked, gaping at her a bit as he looked and saw the opening credits. "You are. Damn it, Jen. When I told you, you could pick out the movie, I thought you'd at least pick something that wasn't loved by a bunch of screaming teenage girls."

"Hey, it's not just teenage girls who like this. They even have a group called Twi-Mom's; they've read the books after their daughters and they go see the movies. They're possibly even more fanatic than the teenagers."

"Fine," he grumbled, knowing there was no way for him to possibly win the argument and not piss off his fiery girlfriend at the same time. "Next time though, I'm picking out the movie."

"Fair enough," she replied coyly. "Only if you stay awake through this one."

This non V-Day Valentine's Day was going to be a long one-in Leroy Jethro Gibbs mind.

A/N 2: I would just like to say I got the idea for torturing Gibbs with the Twilight movie from a Madame Alexandra story called, 'Team Jethro.' The story is fantastic, and you should all check it out. Even if you're not fans of the Twilight series, you will love this.


	6. Memories

Disclaimer: Anyone you recognize I do not own. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario.

A/N: Keep in mind that these occur anywhere from January-May 2012. These little snippets take place before the Navy Yard bombing. If I do anything from later in the story I will let you guys know ahead of time.

****NCIS****

It was Leap Year night, and Jenny knew what this day held for Gibbs. So when he left NCIS without so much as saying good night to her, she didn't hold a grudge. Driving over to his house, she debated whether or not she should go inside, knowing he was most likely passed out drunk in his basement. However, there was the small part of her that wanted to be there for him. They had crossed so many forbidden barriers in their new relationship that she felt that he really wouldn't mind her being there for him. Grabbing her purse, she got out and walked up to the door and let herself in. Taking her coat off, she laid it along with her purse and keys on the table beside his door. Walking through the kitchen, she could see the dim light floating up from the basement. 'Well at least I got the location right. I just hope he's not drinking himself stupid, instead of remembering them,' she thought to herself as she opened the door and looked over the railing. Seeing him sitting with his back toward the stairs, she wasn't sure if he was asleep or not. Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders for whatever he threw at her, she called out his name quietly, "Jethro."

"What are you doing over here?" he asked, hearing her heels clicking lightly on the stairs.

"I wanted to come see how you are," she replied, walking up behind him slowly. "I know how hard today has to be for you, I want you to know you're not alone."

"She would have been twenty-eight today," he said quietly, staring down at the picture he had kept in his basement of himself, Shannon and Kelly on the last day he saw them alive.

"Heh, you could be a grandpa by now," she chuckled, wrapping her arms around his shoulders lightly. "I'd feel sorry for any guy that tried to date or marry her. You'd have killed them before they ever reached the doorstep."

"She always used to tell me that she was going to marry me when she grew up," he chuckled softly, leaning back into her embrace.

"Better than marrying someone like DiNozzo," she said, moving around beside him. "Just think, he could have been your son-in-law maybe."

"There is no way in hell I would have let that happen," he growled, poking her in the side playfully.

Looking at him seriously, she ran her fingers through his hair lightly before asking, "Have you had dinner yet?"

"No, I don't really feel like eating," he replied, making her shake her head.

"Come on, Jethro, you need to eat. We can fix Kelly's favorite meal in honor of her birthday."

Nodding lightly, he set the picture back down on his workbench before standing up and taking her hand in his. "She liked this spaghetti with homemade meat sauce that was my mom's recipe."

"Well if you got the stuff to make it, then I think we should," she replied, grabbing up the picture from his table. "I know you're a private person, but don't think you have to hide them from me. She was your little girl, Jethro. You can talk about her with me if you want to."

Nodding again, he just led her upstairs to the kitchen where he started making their dinner.

****NCIS****

After spending the night talking about Kelly and Shannon, and seeing more pictures that he had hidden away, it gave Jenny a greater understanding of just how devastated and lost he had been when he'd received the news in Kuwait. The one picture that stood out most to her was one of Gibbs holding Kelly the first time he'd gotten to see her. He'd been deployed to Panama when she had been born, and he didn't get to see her till she was almost two months old. The sight of that picture had melted her heart. She always knew he was good with kids, she had even asked him once if he ever thought of having kids of his own. Of course that had been before she'd found out about Shannon and Kelly. Once she had, she'd wished she could take back the question as she saw the pain in his eyes when he woke up from his coma all those years ago.

Walking upstairs, she walked past what she'd always assumed was just a storage room. She was not all that surprised now to see that it was painted pink and had the furniture of what she now knew to be Kelly's. Gibbs was sitting on the bed looking at a Strawberry Shortcake doll. Deciding to leave him with his memories, she went down to his room and stole one of his old NCIS shirts to sleep in that night. Getting into bed, she hoped that this was a turning point in their relationship and he felt more comfortable opening up to her about Kelly as well as Shannon.


End file.
